From the top down in the Trump administration, there is increasing evidence they had no idea whatsoever exactly how much pain would be inflicted on millions of Americans with the Ann Coulter-ordered shutdown of the U.S. government. Case in point: Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’ comments on CNBC this morning. When asked about federal workers having to rely on food banks to feed themselves and their families, Ross, who has an estimated net worth of $700 million, said he simply couldn’t understand why food banks were necessary.
“I know they are, and I don’t really quite understand why. Because, as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are in effect federally guaranteed.”
Worse than that, he completely downplayed the fact that 800,000 federal workers aren’t getting paid, chalking it up to a mere third of a percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, so no big deal! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As you can see in the clip below, he even eye-rolled when asked about the food banks.
While many federal credit unions and banks are offering low-interest loans to federal workers, the workers still have to pay it back with interest. And with Trump’s Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney ordering a report on which agencies or government projects could be shuttered indefinitely (a feature of this shutdown for callous Republicans, not a bug) so that the shutdown might stretch into March or April, exactly how many loans are federal employees expected to take? How long before the banks lock down? That doesn’t even account for the huge numbers of federal contractors who won’t be receiving any back pay at all.
If that kind of out-of-touch thinking wasn’t enough, Ross went on to say how disappointed he was that unpaid air traffic controllers are calling in sick as they look for other means of supporting their families, doing things like driving for Uber. Watch and listen to how grossly out-of-touch this man sounds.
There isn’t one person in the Trump administration who is up to the job. It’s time to reopen the government and shut down the Trump administration.